Consumers (especially children) are always looking for frozen confectionery products which provide interesting eating experiences. Products that provide a new shape or appearance are always appreciated. However, it is a constant challenge in the art to find new ways to shape frozen confectionery products.
Products consisting of a core of frozen confection with a jelly-like coating have been known for some years, for example as described in WO01/30175 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,752,678. CN 101120714A discloses a variation on this in which the jelly coating can be peeled off the frozen confection core, in a manner similar to that of peeling the skin off a piece of fruit. However, it can be difficult to peel the jelly coating away from the frozen confection core without part of the coating sticking to the core and/or the coating breaking up into small pieces.
Similarly, frozen confectionery consisting of an inner core of one confection and an outer shell of another confectionery such as a gel have been proposed before. Alternatively the “twister” ice cream by Unilever is a popular example of a frozen confectionery product having distinct confectionery types in a product.
A more recent example of frozen confectionery products with distinct phases are frozen confectionery products comprising of an inner core of typically ice cream or water ice and an outer layer of gel that can be peeled off the core. One example for such a peelable frozen confectionery product is disclosed in WO2012/156539 and WO2012/156538 (NESTEC S.A.).
However the cutting lines in peelable frozen confectionery products as proposed in the art that are currently made by knives on moulds leave distorted edges on the frozen confectionery product, especially on the sides of the product where typically two mould with knives meet the cuts show distorted material around the curing line.
A different kind of shaping tool is disclosed for instance U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,128, describing a moulding tool to shape a frozen confectionary. However in this type of moulding the entire frozen confectionary product is molten into the desired shape. What remains to be desired is a shaping tool that enables selective shaping of a frozen confectionary; in particular to create a channel into the top layer of a frozen confectionary to create a peelable layer.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a shaping tool that is suitable for making cleaner grooves in frozen confectionery products, especially peelable frozen confectionery products.
It is a further object of the invention that the shaping tool provides improved peeling of a frozen confectionery product.
It is still a further object of the invention that the shaping tool provides a distinct channel in the surface of the frozen confection.
It is yet another object to provide a shaping tool for making a peelable frozen confectionery product from a frozen confectionery product that comprises of a core and a shell layer, the shaping tool being suitable for making a clearly distinguishable channel through the shell layer of the product.
We have found that a shaping tool that comprises of at least one heated element provides a molten channel in the outer surface of a frozen confection.